Can Social Media Replace Email Marketing?

“Now that we are doing good on social media, can’t we stop putting endeavours on email marketing? Is social media even replacing Email Marketing? This topic has been asked several times, either on the internet or in some of our meetings. As a digital bureau, it was somehow perceived as an insult , not to the team , nor the agency, but to online marketing in general. Each period a “new ” effective platform pops-up, we need to cancel the previous one. Well that’s definitely not the style things work.

Emails are more personal than social networks

Either in B2C or B2B, communicating about an offer, a promotion or an update through Facebook, Twitter or any other social network attains the communication impersonal. When a Facebook page or a Twitter account publishes a post, it would be addressed to the general public. While in an email/ newsletter, businesses can approach each individual in the contact list with the first and last name. Doing so drives more attention to the content of the email which can also result in better outcome. According to Aberdeen, “personalized emails improves CTR by 14% and conversions by 10% “.

Emails are more effective than Facebook, Twitter … etc.

The ultimate purposes of businesses being online are acquiring new both consumers and retaining existing ones. Many think that Facebook, being the largest social network out there, is the best place to attract new clients. However, many studies show that emails attract new clients more than any social network. In fact, according to McKinsey, emails are 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter for acquiring new clients. Monetate adds to this that email marketing is the channel that drives the most conversions.

Email messages have better chance to be seen than social media

Without a doubt, Facebook is the largest social network ever, and the second most populated website after Google. However, running a Facebook ad for a specific target doesn’t inevitably assure that all users, within this target, will see the ad. Yes, it’s true, this also applies to emails. But according to Radicati, an email message has 5x higher chance to be seen than a Facebook post.

Emails are DEFINITELY not dead

The statement that email subscribers don’t read their emails anymore is a total myth. To prove this, we had to refer to ChoozOn which stated that 57% of email subscribers apportion 10 -6 0 minutes per week browsing marketing emails. A lot of you will say that Facebook, Twitter or Instagram users expend more period checking their feeds. While this statement is true, Facebook users “like ” several businesses pages, and with the latest big Facebook update, they are now considering fewer and less content arriving organically from these business pages. And rarely will Facebook or Twitter users check a business account haphazardly, without any particular reason. In addition, 72% of people said they prefer to get promotional content through email, versus 17% via social media, according to MarketingSherpa.

With social networks, there’s nowhere to run

Whether on Facebook, Twitter, and lately Instagram, businesses have to run ads to promote their offers, promotions, or simply their announcement. To do that, they have to target people according to their interests, undertakings, demographics … etc. Not all users who assure the ad, will feel concerned or interested by it. Hence, their newsfeed might get full of similar irrelevant ads. The only style to get rid of them is to … God prohibits … cease the social networks! On the other hand, if users receive irrelevant emails, they can simply unsubscribe from the list, in a click of a button. And poof … no more emails from this sender.

In conclusion, email marketing is a big player in any online marketing strategy. But now that we have, hopefully, persuaded you that social networks cannot replace emails, we hope that you won’t look down on social media marketing. Many social media agencies will agree with us when we say that every online channel has its own benefits. Hence, collaborate with a digital bureau to create a successful online marketing strategy and give every channel its right.